Gilbert police set to enforce new Arizona immigration law

While debate ramps up this week over Arizona's controversial immigration law, Gilbert police officials are gearing up to enforce Senate Bill 1070 should it go into effect Thursday.

Each of the town's 216 sworn officers were required to view a 90-minute training video recently released by the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, said Lt. Hugh White, a Gilbert police spokesman.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the state have reviewed the video, which instructs officers how to enforce SB1070 and warns that some members of the public may try to put officers on the defensive.

"Officers will have a question-and-answer period with the trainers. They will also go over some scenario-type situations," White said of the training.

The new law, among other things, requires police in a lawful traffic stop to ask a person's immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion to believe they are in the country illegally.

Although the law specifically prohibits an officer from using a person's race, ethnicity or other identifiers to determine whether to ask if they are in the country legally, many argue the law could force police to racially profile people they come into contact with.

"We have a strict policy against racial profiling. It's against our policy and is against the law," White said.

SB1070 shouldn't drastically change Gilbert's immigration policy, which requires an officer to ask the status of people arrested of a crime. The policy is in line with other agencies in the Valley such as Mesa.

While minorities make up about 17 percent of the town's overall population of nearly 200,000 people, minorities have accounted for 22.3 percent of the department's 28,828 traffic stops this year, according to police figures.

Census figures show that Hispanics are the largest minority group in the town and account for about 15 percent of the overall population. Between Jan. 1 and June 30, more than 13 percent of traffic stops - or 3,841 - involved Hispanics.

African-Americans accounted for 1,584 traffic stops or 5.5 percent of all traffic stops over that same period. Asians were stopped 1,260 times and accounted for 2.3 percent of stops, police data shows.

While minority groups account for about one in four traffic stops in the town, not all of those confronted by police are necessarily residents.

White was unaware how many suspected illegal immigrants were contacted by Gilbert police.